Breaking the Spiral
by Omega Gilgamesh
Summary: An ordinary teen from an ordinary world that he never liked suddenly finds himself somewhere extraordinary. Follow his adventure as he discovers why he was brought to Spira, and what his destiny holds. OC/Rikku.
1. Prologue

Breaking the Spiral

By C.S. Frost (Omega Gilgamesh)

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX, and I make no claim over it. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes, and I make no money off of it, or any future chapters. No legal infringement is intended.

Sitting down on the beach, Jethro looked over Henderson's Inlet. It was the rare sunny day in Western Washington, and there was a cool breeze going across Puget Sound, resulting in some good waves across the blue channel. He was sitting down on the rocks, planning to stay there until sundown just to get back at his mother. He thought about stealing one of the kayaks or canoes on the public boat rack and paddling over to the other side of the inlet, a good mile and a half away. It would be a good way to burn off energy, give him something to focus on.

Nearly two years ago, Jethro's father got custody of him, and they lived in the South Puget Sound region of Washington ever since. Until that afternoon, when his mother showed up saying she bought an apartment in Montana, and that the two of them were leaving immediate to pack. His parents immediately got into their usual fight over him, and Jethro knew it would only be about thirty to forty-five minutes before a neighbor called the police due to overheard threats and disturbing the peace. The fights between them were bad enough, but added on top of that the pitying looks the police would always give him, and he really didn't want to stick around.

The two years he had stayed with his father was the longest he'd lived in one place since his parents divorced eight years back, and he'd be damned if he gave up the few friends he'd made in that time. It wasn't fair; because of his parents' fighting, he was forced to miss out on both his elementary AND middle school graduations. The one time he ever did well at school, at the ceremony giving the kids diplomas for academic excellence, the two of them had been escorted out of the building for interrupting the ceremony by yelling at each other. He still remembered how the other kids made fun of him, and how he got expelled from that school for attacking them.

Sighing, he stretched his legs out in front of him, not caring if his black slacks got dirty, and leaned back on his hands to prop his torso up. It was unseasonably warm, but he still had to wear a long sleeved shirt to keep the wind chill down. He'd chosen his favorite: midnight blue, with fire designs going down the arms and meeting in the back as a phoenix. Shifting his weight, he ran a hand through his unkempt red-gold hair to keep it from getting worse due to the wind. He was an exotic ethnical blend, having tanned skin halfway between his Native American grandfather and Japanese grandmother, while having his mother's piercing green eyes and hair color. He saw how some of the girls in his classes looked at him with some admiration. As a child, he was lanky, but his parents got him into martial arts nearly ten years ago, and since getting into his teens, his skinny body eventually turned to bands and cords. One girl, who was one of the few friends he'd made over the last two years, told him that if it weren't for his dour disposition, he'd be a lot more popular with the girls. As if he'd want a girlfriend, what with the parents he'd eventually have to introduce her to. It was the same reason he made so few friends.

Sighing again, he noticed that he was slipping into dark thoughts again. His friends always chirped the same litany, "you're too gloomy, you get depressed too easily, you get too lost in your own thoughts". At least his thoughts were something his parents couldn't fight over. Sometimes, he just wished those tales of being whisked away to some incredible land full of mystery and wonder would happen to him. Actually, it was most of the time that he wished such a miracle would happen to him.

Knowing it will never happen to him, he looked over the Sound once again, and that's when he saw it. It looked like a large wave traveling down the inlet, at least thirty feet high. Panic gripped him as he thought it might be a tsunami. Lithely getting to his feet as fast as he could, he turned and sprinted up the path he took to get to the beach. He turned his head to look once, and paused in surprise. It wasn't a tsunami; it wasn't even a wave. It was a bulge in the water, as if something huge were swimming and displacing the water above it! And it may have been his imagination, but he thought the…bulge was moving slower than it had when he first saw it.

Curiosity overpowered his flight instincts, and he stood there, staring at the water as the bulge eventually slowed down to become perfectly still.

The dome of water stayed as it was, not falling away to reveal what it was hiding like it should have. Instead it held as a quarter sphere of water, its surface rippling like water does. Jethro noticed the bulge starting to rise in the water, becoming more and more sphere-shaped as it rose. It was massive, it had to span at least a quarter of a mile across!

He realized too late that the ball of water was not rising, but the water level was lowering, when a large wave suddenly formed off of the beach, pulling the waterline violently outward. Jethro's eyes widened, and resumed his mad sprint uphill. He looked over his shoulder a few seconds later, only to see the tsunami had covered the four hundred feet between him and the beach in no time at all. The wall of water slammed into him, taking him completely off his feet, slamming him into the hill the path was carved into, nearly taking the breath out of him in the process, and then felt his equilibrium change as the water began pulling him back out to the ocean. Less than two seconds later, his back slammed into an alder tree, knocking the breath out of him. Almost immediately after, the current pulled him around the tree and into the inlet, where he saw the sun's reflection on the surface of the water getting farther and farther away as he was pulled under the waves. His lungs burned with a greater intensity than the hottest summer day, and he thrashed his limbs in a vain attempt to get back to the surface.

Eventually, his mind clouded, and he tried to breath in the water. When he did, more pain filled his lungs as he naturally tried to exhale all the water, which failed since water was the only thing he had, and his second breath caused a panic that was as physically painful as it was mental. Darkness took over his mind, and all thought ceased.

Suddenly he was aware again as his body crashed into something hard and rugged. He felt water on his skin, but also felt cool air. Immediately he took in as deep a breath as he could, and then forcefully exhaled half a lung full of water. His reflexive, panicked breathing went on for a few more hard breaths before he got most of the water out of his lungs, then he vomited what little was still in his stomach. His mind not yet catching up, he touched his head to the water and vomit stained ground with his body propped up on his forearms and knees, and wept. After a time, which when he thought back on it was probably no more than a few seconds, he realized he was on asphalt. That couldn't be right. He opened his eyes and saw that he was, indeed, on asphalt, and looked around. This wasn't the beach.

He was in a city of some sort, and he realized it was night time. The stars were out and lights were on every building, which ranged from the typical box shape to sky scrapers to spires. He didn't recognize the architecture. He then noticed that everyone was running, all in the same direction.

He moved back onto his knees and looked around, somewhat numb from his near-death experience. When he turned his head enough, he noticed a large mass of crimson behind him. Instinctively, he jerked away, twisting in mid-fall to land on his back. The large red mass was a tall man in a knee-length red haori with blue lining, his arm in sling position within his robe, and a jug at his hip. Jethro's first impression was: _a ronin?_

The man stepped closer and extended a thickly gloved hand to him. The two of them were still in a sea of running, panicky people, and the man seemed oblivious to it. It was surreal, otherworldly. This whole thing was just unreal.

He grabbed the hand and the man effortlessly hoisted him onto his feet. "Stay with me." The man ordered.

"Wh…wha…" Between the stomach acids burning his throat and his mind still reeling from everything that happened within the last couple minutes, he was having trouble speaking.

The older man wordlessly turned and started walking away. Jethro numbly followed him, already exhausted. Several more people passed them, a couple of them screaming. _What are they running from?_ He wondered. He turned his head and saw the answer. That same sphere of water was in the air, encroaching on the city. The buildings were actually _bending_ toward the mass, as if it were a gravity-well unto itself. Suddenly, his foot fell into a pothole, causing him to trip onto his back. He barely felt his head hit the street, with how numb his mind and body felt, but he looked down and saw drops of water from the puddle staying in the air for a brief moment before moving through the air toward the giant floating sphere.

Almost immediately, some of the clouds in his mind went away and he felt terror again. He clumsily got to his feet, and started running. Yet the moment he passed the older, larger man, his arm reached out and grabbed the collar of Jethro's shirt, immediately halting the young man's run with an iron grip.

"We have time." He said with authoritative dispassion. "Relax."

Whatever it was in the man's voice, Jethro suddenly found himself unable to disobey the man's orders. He kept on walking as everyone else ran. Jethro looked forward for the first time to see where they were heading, when he got his first unobstructed view of the entire city. It was a city floating on the ocean!

"Where the hell am I?" Jethro muttered under his breath, dread in his voice.

The stranger said nothing as they continued on. Within minutes, they arrived at a massive, squat building. A roar of cheers could be heard from within. _Don't these people know what's going on out here?_ Jethro wondered.

And then the older man just stopped outside the gate guarded by two massive stone centurions. Jethro, surprised by the sudden stop, looked around, wondering what they were waiting for. After a couple minutes, he couldn't hold it in anymore. "What are we waiting for?" He demanded.

The man said nothing. After another agonizing minute, Jethro decided to disobey and run into the building for cover. A few men in thick blue coats, looking like security guards, demanded to see his ticket or get out. He was about to tell them about the impending crisis, when he noticed, down a stone hallway, another sphere of water, much smaller than the one attacking the city, but still a good three hundred feet across, simply floating in mid-air. There were _people_ in the sphere! It looked like they were playing three dimensional football as they bobbed and weaved like schools of fish.

"Hey!" One of the security guards grabbed Jethro's arm in a strong grip. Suddenly everything shook as explosions could be heard around the stadium. Several parts of the stone structure cracked and broke under the sudden stress. He looked toward the gate leading outside, and saw water spouting from the edges of the bridges that made the walkways, blasting apart the stone guardians. The lights in the building flickered, and the grip holding Jethro's arm loosened. He turned to look where the guard was looking, and saw, at the last moment, the water arena break apart, fall on the ground, and flush down the hallways.

Jethro broke the grip as he ran toward the exit. The guards followed him almost immediately, and as soon as he got to the stairs, the water hit them. With the volume of water covering such a large area, the water went barely above his knees, but it still hit with enough force to sweep his legs out from under him. The fall into the water broke his fall on the stairs somewhat, though it pushed him down to the bottom, the back of head hitting every step along the way. When he hit the ground, his legs crumbed and he ended up vaulting onto his stomach. A few seconds later, the water flowed away, and he saw he landed right next to the red-robed man. He'd recognize those shoes anywhere.

"That…was what we were waiting for." The man stated matter-of-factly.

"Can I go home now?" He asked, pathetically.

"Humph, you _are_ home." He stated, before turning and walking back toward the stadium. Moments later, a young man, about the same age as Jethro, maybe a year or two older, ran out, soaking wet and moving as if he were in pain. He looked and saw the older man in red, and his eyes lit up in surprise.

"Huh? Auron! What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I was waiting for you." The man, Auron, responded monotonously.

"What are you talking about?" The athletic man in yellow demanded, but got no answer as Auron walked off. The youth sighed, and followed him. Jethro, having no idea what was going on, figured that sticking with this Auron was the best idea. It seemed like the man knew about him, maybe even expected him, and knew something about that ball of water that no one else seemed to know. At the very least, sticking with him might give him some answers.

Within a minute, Jethro realized they must be heading _toward_ the giant mass of water, since the crowds of people were heading toward them. This made following Auron difficult, as they were heading upstream. The older man didn't seem affected by the people at all. He must have either been skillfully dodging them or he simply moved like an unstoppable force; Jethro couldn't tell, because in almost no time at all, he and Auron's acquaintance found more and more distance opening up between them and the older man due to the crowds making forward progress difficult.

After a little while, the crowds thinned, and the two young men spotted Auron, standing in the middle of the bridge/road. There were still a few people around, all running the opposite direction, but they were at least few enough to not slow them down much.

"Hey!" Jethro yelled out to his companion over the den of screams and worried cries, "Just who is that…guy…" He suddenly found himself yelling into a void of silence. There were no screams, no cries. He had been looking at the bleached blonde man a moment earlier, who suddenly standing was ten feet away from where he had been a millisecond earlier, completely still, looking at the road as if looking at someone shorter than himself. An instant after noticing that, he saw that everyone on the road was deathly still, in complete suspended animation. Some where even running, and frozen halfway toward a step, both feet off the ground.

"It begins." Jethro wheeled around at the sudden, but soft, break in the silence. It was a small boy in blue pants and a blue vest with a hood that covered his eyes in shadows. "Please, end what you started."

"What?" He asked, confused. "I didn't start any-" He was cut off as the screams suddenly resumed as if God himself hit the 'resume' button.

"What the?" He heard the blonde man say, barely audible over the din. Jethro looked over, and saw the man in question continue toward Auron, who was still standing still in the middle of the now clear road. "Hey! Wait! Hey, not this way!" He said before doubling over to breath.

"Yeah," Jethro chimed in. "Where are you taking us?"

Auron simply indicated where he had been looking and said, "Look."

The two men looked, and Jethro got a sinking feeling in his gut as he saw that the three of them were heading, more or less, toward the giant ball. This time, when he looked closely, he could see there was something moving around inside it. What might have been where the head would be were over half a dozen little lights. _Eyes, maybe?_

"We called it 'Sin'." Auron explained.

"'Sin'?" The young blonde asked.

"Whoa!" Jethro said, catching sight of something shooting out of the ball. "Incoming!" He yelled.

A moment later, a large black spearhead with a tentacle for a tail crashed into a nearby building. A second later, the scales on the tail shot off, redirected their course in mid-flight, and embedded themselves into the bridge in front of them. Within moments, the scales broke open like nuts, revealing insectoid bodies and wings made out of the shells of the scales.

_I'm dreaming._ Jethro thought, nearly begging it to be true, knowing it wasn't. _This isn't actually happening. Things like that couldn't really exist._

Then the Sin Scales started moving toward them. Jethro instinctually backed up, but they followed him even faster. Then, his fight-or-flight response pulled a one-eighty, and he jumped forward, using his momentum to power a soccer style kick into the side of one of the Sin Scales, hoping that would scare the others off. His foot connected solidly and powerfully, due to years of martial arts training, but the bug only flew away maybe two yards, and pain shot through his instep and shin. Not only where they heavier than they looked, but their exoskeletons were _hard_!

He took a little step back before putting weight back on his kicking leg, and it nearly crumbled under him due to the pain. And due to that moment of pain, he didn't see the other two scales attack early enough. One used its mandibles to latch onto his leg, teeth digging into flesh, and held his leg in place with surprising fortitude. His initial recoil response, combined with his leg being locked in place, caused Jethro to fall onto his back. His next instinct was to kick the monster as hard as he could, which got it to let go, but only by dragging its claws and teeth across his leg, making bloody tears across across flesh and nearly tearing the skin completely off.

In frustration, he wheeled his legs around and behind him, causing him to roll back onto his feet, but due to the pain in both of them, one bruised, the other bloody, he was barely able to stand. An absent thought told him, _You haven't done this badly in a fight since you were a junior student! You can do better than this!_

Of course, this was his first real fight since that schoolyard brawl that got him expelled, and that one didn't endanger his life. Nonetheless, that bug wouldn't have taken him down if he had been using his stances like he was taught to from day one, that kick wouldn't have bothered him had he already come to terms with the thought of pain and possible death like he was supposed to in order to help him deal with pain and fear, and if he had been thinking properly, he would've kicked the monster's mandibles away from his leg rather than its body in order to minimize additional damage.

He took a deep, quick breath, and imagined all pain and fear leaving his body along with his breath as he exhaled. Years of training came back as his mind sharpened, though not nearly as much as it normally did when he calmed down before a spar. He saw the bleached blonde in yellow overalls recoiling as one of the monsters shot a trio of spindles into his shoulder. He hastily pulled them out, before Auron stepped between them and brought down a thick, heavy sword with what looked like a skinning edge on it.

"Take it." He said. As the young man took it, Auron effortlessly pulled both the sword and young man up. As soon as he let go, Blondie had trouble holding the heavy thing. "A gift from Jecht."

"My old man?" The young man asked, surprised. He then took a few threatening swings with it at the monsters.

Auron then held out a black scimitar to Jethro. The blade was jet black, with the edge and two fullers-per-side shining a golden sheen. The blade thickened between the blade and spine near the end, providing extra force behind strikes, with a saw-blade across the last third of the spine. The grip was covered in leather and long enough for equal comfort between one or two hands, with a wing shaped guard, and a thick, heavy pommel. The pommel had to be heavy, the blade itself was as wide as the blonde man's sword!

Jethro grabbed the sword, and though he did better than Blondie, he found it very hard to hold it well. The heavy pommel only _helped_ balance the weapon!

"A gift from my father as well?" Jethro asked, not taking his eyes away from the scuttling bugs.

"No." Auron said, simply. "I hope you both know how to use them."

Jethro and Blondie got into ready stances, or at least as ready as they could get with their heavy, unfamiliar weapons. Jethro took a peek at Auron, and saw the man holding a long, equally thick sword on his shoulder that was roughly shaped like a katana. Bringing his eyes back to the enemy, he allowed another stray thought to enter his attention, _Where the hell was he holding these things? A magic bag of holding?_ Another thought told him that, in this world, it seemed possible.

"These ones don't matter." Auron stated, "We cut through!"

Blondie leapt forward, cleaving into one of the bugs; Auron followed suit, cutting down a bug preemptively with calm and practiced ease as if he were opening a door! The third bug turned slightly toward the two men, which was Jethro's cue to move toward the monster. It saw him quickly, and shot a trio of spindles at him. He side stepped to avoid them, spun around, and with two hands swung his sword into the Sin Scale. He felt momentary resistance before the heavy sword broke through the exoskeleton like an ax through maple.

A moment later, the trio ran forward, bobbing and weaving between the Sin Scales that had not yet 'hatched'. Suddenly, the last row hatched, blocking their way. The three of them stopped, and noticed that two Sin Scales behind them had hatched as well, catching them in a pincer.

"Don't bother going after all of them." Auron ordered further. "Cut the ones that matter, and run!" The battle went about as fast as the first, and as they continued forward, Jethro noted how the monsters disappeared into flying lights with tails behind them. At this point, with his mind focused, he barely paid it any mind as they did not seem to be a direct danger.

After climbing a rise in the road, they spotted one of the spearhead-and-tentacle carriers, surrounded by half a dozen Sin Scales. Jethro was about to turn back, and he guessed Blondie was about to as well, but Auron continued forward uninterrupted. Both Jethro and Blondie groaned, and followed suit.

"Get out of my town!" Blondie angrily yelled.

"Some can't wait to die!" Auron stated with unusual fervor. He jumped in the air, _ten feet_ in the air, and orange energy surrounded his sword before he landed and plunged his sword into the bridge. Suddenly, explosions came from the ground under the scales, blowing them apart and into the firefly things.

"Why didn't you do that earlier?" Jethro asked, surprised but still on his guard.

Auron pulled his sword out with ease and settled back into his relaxed battle stance, calmly answering, "Such attacks can't be done successively. You'll understand that soon enough."

"What?" Jethro asked as Blondie pulled an acrobatic flip to bring both momentum and weight into a sword strike that blasted via an explosion a large chunk off the tentacle thing that was nearly six feet high and three feet wide.

The tentacle flipped around, and a singularity-like disturbance formed in the air, and all three men were violently pulled toward it. Auron managed to control his flight so he landed on his feet, but Blondie was so surprised he land more on his knees, and Jethro landed on his back hard.

The pain broke his focus for a few seconds, but he noticed Auron cutting through the monster several times with simple attacks that, nonetheless, seemed to have a dancer's grace to them. Suddenly, another singularity formed, this time off the edge of the bridge, and all three were pulled once again. Blondie was close enough to the bridge that he was able to grab the hand-rail, but Jethro was far back enough and the singularity high enough that he would miss the hand rail entirely. He was going to fly off the bridge and into the ocean!

He noticed at the last second, Auron plunged his sword into the bridge, effectively holding him in place as he held on with one hand and extended his other hand to grab Jethro's wrist. The man had a grip most power lifters would envy! He actually yelped in pain as the man nearly crushed his wrist in order to keep his hand from slipping through. The singularity only lasted a couple seconds, but they were agonizing seconds as it felt like his arm was about to rip off.

When it was over, Jethro slammed chest first into the ground, and Blondie rolled over the railing more than vaulted over it. Auron pulled his sword back out, again with unnatural ease, and started chopping into the monster again.

Rage rolled through Jethro, enough to deaden the pain and allow him to get to his feet, run forward, and plunge his scimitar all the way to the hilt into the monster. Fury gave him the strength to pull it out, and he spun around slamming his blade into the monster as hard as he could. The blade sank deep, and he repeated. After a few seconds, Blondie joined in, and a few strikes later, the monster's tentacle flailed about, its skin shimmered, and he was vaguely aware of parts of the monster blowing up. Such distance thoughts, however, weren't enough to stop his attacks.

A few seconds later, Jethro felt a hand on his shoulder, a gesture gentle enough in his fury to shock him. He spun around, and saw a concerned look on the blond man's face. "Hey, I think its dead."

Jethro turned toward the monster, and saw dozens, maybe hundreds of the firefly-like lights coming out of its still body. He suddenly felt exhausted, dropping to his knees, realizing how much energy he'd used in those strikes. Years of training was failing him once again, he was fighting for his life and doing a poor job of it, he was in a fantasy world as far as he could tell, and he had no answers. All the pressure of the last thirty minutes crashed down on him and he started weeping.

"Uh, hey." Blondie said, awkwardly. "Hey, there's no need for that. It's, uh…it's gonna be all right!" A few seconds later, he gave up and yelled, "Hey, stop crying! It's not gonna help!"

Jethro sobbed a few more times before getting control over himself again. "I'm sorry, it's just…"

"Hey, uh…don't worry about it, okay? Let's just get outta here."

"Yeah…yeah, let's do that." Jethro picked himself up, and the two of them ran after Auron.

A minute later, as they were catching up, Blondie muttered something under his breath before calling out, "Auron, let's get outta here!"

"We're expected." He said before continuing on.

"Christ, is he always like that?" Jethro asked, doubling over to catch his breath.

"Yeah, most of the time anyway." He mumbled before following. The two of them continued on and quickly caught up with Auron. Suddenly he stopped, and not a moment too soon, as in front of them and behind them, hundreds of Sin Scales landed.

"Ah shit!" Jethro cursed, whatever cool he still had quickly going away.

"Hmph, this could be bad." Auron stated. Then he nodded toward some container holding several barrels via a power coupling over the side of the bridge. "That, knock it down!"

"What?" Tidus asked, shocked. Jethro got the feeling he thought that was a bad idea, whatever the thing was.

"Trust me. You'll see." Auron stated as he started his quick, yet so efficient it almost looked methodical, massacre of the Sin Scales, drawing their attention away from Jethro and the blonde man. Blondie groaned then struck the device in the middle of the power coupling. Deciding not to wait, Jethro took swings at it in between Blondie's. Soon, the device's cover became mangled, and eventually broke apart. Then the barrels fell. And exploded when they hit the water. The resulting boom scrambled Jethro's brains and he was sure his ears where bleeding besides ringing really loud. He did, however, manage to notice in time that the building was collapsing, and collapsing toward the bridge!

He made a mad dash down the bridge, running between Sin Scales that took ineffective, but still painful, cuts at his legs and thighs as he passed. Mere milliseconds later, the building, which was unusually thin for its width and height, slammed through the bridge, hit the water, and floated for a moment before slowly sinking.

"Go." Auron calmly said, surprising Jethro as he didn't know the man was behind him. Blondie took off, and as soon as Auron started, Jethro followed suit. Fires started breaking out through the building, and Blondie must have been more tired than he let on as both Auron and Jethro soon passed him. Jethro noticed that he felt lighter, but didn't pay it any mind as he raced as fast as he could. Auron jumped fifteen feet in the air before landing on the bridge. The bridge's edge itself was way too high for Jethro to jump, but he tried anyway. He found himself flying at the bridge faster than he should have, and slowing down much too slowly. Soon, his chest hit the broken asphalt, and he pulled himself over.

A moment later, Blondie called out to Auron. Jethro looked over the edge, and saw him holding on by his finger tips. He quickly got onto his stomach and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him up, finding his body far too light. It was then he noticed, looking past him and seeing the water moving _away_ from them, that they were rising. Curiosity got the better of him, and he looked up, instantly wishing he hadn't.

Sin was right above them, a gigantic mass of water opening up, drawing everything around them toward it, revealing a series of fleshy rings that undulated, with the center so bright with light they couldn't make out anything. Auron said something as Jethro moved back to helping Blondie up, but then reached down, grabbing Blondie by the scruff of his sweater, saying, "This is it. This is your story…"

He then grabbed Jethro's shirt. "…And the beginning of the end of yours." He then lifted them both up, as if offering them to Sin, and the three of them got sucked in, and all went black.

End of Chapter One

Author's Note: First priority: this story was inspired by anbu713's story _2 Fallen Gods, and a Guardian Angel_. I recommend it. Maybe new reviews will get his ass writing again. This story is also a nod toward Benji Powell's (Nightfire04) Destiny Calls and Chronicles of the Chosen fanfics. Second priority, some of you may be wondering how this story will be different from similar ones like it. First off, Jethro is not my avatar, he's a character I created. He's not a Gary Stu, and thus not an extension of my E-peen. Also, this won't just be a carbon copy of the script of FFX with my character adding a little dialogue here and there, he will have his own adventure besides just tagging along with the other characters, and he will develop his own unique relationships among the group. I've got plans for what will happen to him along the storyline.

And a word of warning, I'm a chronic procrastinator. Just look at Chronicles of the Nerevarine for example. That's essentially been put on indefinite hold. Caveat Emptor, subscribers.


	2. Cold Welcome

Chapter Two

After strange dreams of an endless series of waterfalls and meadows of beautiful flowers, Jethro began to wake up. His first impression was of hard, cold stone and the smell of salt water. He gradually opened his eyes and saw he was on a stone slab in the middle of a body of water. Some distance away, he could see several dilapidated structures. He pushed himself onto his elbows and noticed that the lower half of his body was under water, as the stone slab he was one was partially submerged. He rolled over onto his back, and scooted back until his feet were in open air. He didn't notice any feeling in his lower extremities as he performed the action, so he felt his knee. It was bitterly cold, even colder than the air.

That wasn't good. He had to start doing something to get the muscles working or he might get hypothermia soon. With his legs and lower torso wet and cold, his overall body temperature would soon follow. He still remembered that strange city, Sin, and the strangers he fought with. It was then he noticed that the scimitar Auron gave him lay only a few feet from where he woke up, also partially submerged in the water. As he pulled it completely out of the water to avoid rust, he stood up to get his legs moving.

He took several breaths before yelling out, "HELLO? IS ANYONE OUT THERE? AURON? ANYBODY? BLONDIE?" He saw a flash of lightning in the distance followed less than a second later by a thunderclap. The light illuminated the silhouette of a large structure which couldn't have been more than a thousand feet away. It was large, with a rough dome shape, and reminded him of old Inca ruins. "Indiana Jones?" He muttered as an afterthought. But more than the nearby structure, he noticed the lightning. Where there was lightning, there was usually rain. With the thunderclap less than a second behind the flash, that meant the storm was very close. He might get hypothermia without a storm. With a storm he would definitely get it. That meant finding shelter.

He started doing squats with his heavy sword in hand to help get his blood flowing to generate body heat while he examined his surroundings better. The nearest structure was a good fifty yards away, which was still a significant swim in frigid water, but there was a line of columns leading from his slab to the structure. There was a good five feet distance between them, but they were low enough that he could easily jump from his slab onto the nearest one. Looking at the layout of the structures, Jethro figured the area must have once been a park or a courtyard, with little bits of shelter for comfort and columns for diversity or to establish boundaries.

_What happened to this place?_ He wondered. Everything seemed to indicate it wasn't always flooded like this. Global flooding, perhaps? It would make sense that a in a flooded world there would be cities built on top of the ocean.

Deciding he shouldn't stall any longer, that storm wasn't getting any farther away, he lined himself up with the nearest column. The first jump would be easy, but after that it would be tricky. The columns were thick enough that he could stand on both feet with a couple inches to spare, perhaps, but they were irregular at the tops, some jagged while others flat; but there was no room on each column to get a running start like he had on his improvised bed. He had never tried parkour out, but jumping from one column to another in succession via continuous momentum seemed like the only option. It was risky, and he had never done anything like it before, but it was the best option he had. Hopefully, he could at least get closer to the structure before being forced to swim. He wanted to be in the cold water as little as possible.

Taking a few quick breaths, he took off, holding his sword's grip in one hand and gingerly holding the spine below the saw-blade with the other. The leap was perfect, his left foot connected solidly with the top of the column, which he pushed off of to keep his momentum up. On the second column, his foot slipped due to wet moss, and he ended up slamming his chest into the third column whose sharp-cornered top scraped his chest. He tried holding on by wrapping his legs around it and holding onto the top with his fingers, but his fingers were already nearly too numb, the sides provided too little friction, and his sword was too heavy. His fingers gave way, and he slid down the column into the cold water, albeit slower than it could have been due to the fact he was, to the casual observer, straddling the column. He was suddenly glad he was alone, at least until he hit the water.

It was no wonder his legs were numb earlier, the water was _cold_! At least he saved himself maybe fifteen feet or so of swimming distance, but his stunt still didn't work nearly as well as he had hoped. Bringing his head above the water, he let out something halfway between a scream and a yelp to deal with the sudden extreme cold. With the pain encouraging him, he swam as hard as he could toward building, which was little more than diagonal walls with stairways leading up to a small stone building of a dozen columns or so and a few cracked walls holding up a ceiling.

His progress was much harder than it normally would've been due to the fact that he had to fight just to stay afloat with his sword, and the fact that he had very little fat on his body which reduced his buoyancy, but he still made it within a couple minutes. As he got out of the water, shivering fiercely and huffing hard from the exertion, he looked around the structure, hoping for something that he could use to cover himself to contain his ambient body heat, possibly after taking his clothes off so they could dry.

He found nothing, the place was completely barren. He continued to walk around the structure to keep his muscles working, which was probably the only thing keeping him alive at that point, while checking the place out. The building itself had only one doorway entrance, the inside having a few empty windows, but below those there was virtually no airflow from the wind, so he could curl into a ball without worrying about the storm making things worse for him. However, looking out the window, he saw some lights in the distance. The half-dozen or so light beams seemed to originate from roughly the same point, and that point was moving.

That might've been his ticket out. He weighed the idea of staying safe in the building against braving the cold waters again to find the source of those lights. He figured it was a ship of some kind, and it looked like it was heading toward the main temple, or whatever it was. After a half minute of deliberating with himself, he decided to risk it. The water likely wasn't going to get any warmer anytime soon, and it certainly wasn't drinkable, and he had no means that he could see of feeding himself.

As soon as he got outside and saw a stone walkway some two hundred feet out that seemed to go toward the structure before disappearing into the darkness, the rain started. "Great." He muttered. Taking a few deep breaths, he jumped into the water again. It wasn't as bad as last time, which wasn't a good thing, he figured. He pushed himself hard to get to the stone protruding from the water, harder than he'd pushed himself physically in quite some time. With the heavy rain splashing the water around him, he couldn't tell how far he was from the non-submerged buildings, so he took a deep breath and plunged underwater for a few seconds. Due to the storm, it was not only darker out but the extra rippling of the surface distorted what little light there was further. Suddenly, a flash of lightning illuminated everything.

He saw how far away he was, noted he was crossing the distance at a decent speed, but also noticed that there was a lot of scenery underwater as well. It looked like everything there was once above water, with statues and mosaic stone walkways. Going back to the surface with a better idea of how far he had to go, he crossed the remaining distance and managed to see the lip of the walkways before he could break a tooth on them. He climbed out and shook himself off as best he could.

There, he saw that everything between him and the temple was above water level, mercifully. The rain was warmer than the water, but the wind made up the difference. He noted that the lights seemed to have moved behind the temple, and started the trek to circumvent the massive structure. There was a lot of rubble covering nearly every square foot, he noted. Not only global flooding, but apparently there must have been some kind of battle as well, since there was practically nothing left intact.

After climbing and hiking through the rain and rubble for several minutes, he finally got an unobstructed view of the vessel housing the search beams. It indeed had parked near the temple, he could even make out a long ramp leading from the ship to the shore.

He thought it silly to consider first impressions at a time like this, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into. For all he knew, these people might try to kill him on sight if he came running at them crying like an idiot with a huge sword in his hands. Therefore, he put the sword in his off-hand in a reverse grip where he held the sword by the guard with the side of the blade against the back of his left arm. Because of his Japanese grandmother, he studied a lot of old Japanese customs and even the language. At meetings among Samurai, having one's sword in a position where it would be difficult to quickly get it into a ready position was often a sign of trust and peaceful intent. He doubted they would take such a thing into account, but he wanted to cover as many bases as he could. He could, possibly, spy on them to make sure of what he was getting into, but if they caught him being sneaky around them, that would make it even harder to convince them that he meant no harm.

He thought about walking directly onto the ship before he spotted a group of people, probably half a dozen, standing out in the rain outside a temple wall. Due to the symmetry of both sides of the temple, Jethro figured there was likely a door right there that they were trying to access. He approached them cautiously, trying not to appear to be too eager to meet them, which he wasn't. As he got closer, he saw that they were wearing assorted clothing and masks; yellow seemed to be a common color among the group. A couple of them had a large metal bar they were using to try and pry open the door.

When he got close enough to hear them, he didn't recognize any of their speech. One of the guys trying to pry the door open said something that sounded like a complaint, when a girl, definitely a girl, in a pink and flesh colored bodysuit said something that sounded like a sharp rebuke. It sounded like she was the leader of this expedition, despite being half the size of any of the others.

"Hey!" He called out when he was close enough, and everyone in the group stopped what they were doing immediately, with most readying rifles and what looked like hand cannons in an instant. Reflexively, Jethro lifted both his arms in a sign of submission, and slowly knelt down to put his sword on the ground.

"Cinnuiht res." The girl ordered, and the group slowly, never taking their eyes off of him, moved to surround him, giving plenty of space. "Tu hud tu yhodrehk rycdo." She added to her men in an almost cautionary tone.

"Ra sicd pa y fiend, hu uha amca fuimt ajan lusa rana." One of them said, holding his rifle up to look down its sights at him.

"Uh, I come in peace?" Jethro tried. Something about the man's tone worried him.

"Fyed." The girl called out with a hand in the air. She seemed to be halting the men. "Ra luimt pa risyh." After a few seconds, she seemed to mull it over. "Mad'c dyga res fedr ic. Dyga dra cfunt yht gaab res frana oui lyh caa res." She declared, punching her fist into her hand.

"Huh?" He muttered as a man came behind him and nudged him forward with the bayonet on his rifle. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see someone grabbing his sword. The group led him back to the wall, where he could see large stone double doors that would lead into the temple. A large metal rod was propped into a hole in the middle of the doors, and while two men went back to prying the doors open with the blond girl overseeing their progress, the rest of the group kept their eyes intently on Jethro.

A few minutes of hard work later, something on the door's seam broke, and it slowly began to lean until it plummeted onto the ground with a crash that could be felt quite clearly through the legs. Afterwards, the group moved Jethro into the temple, where it was mercifully dry, even if there were streams of water everywhere from pools collected under broken parts of the ceiling.

They spent several minutes moving around, which wasn't bad since it took his mind off the numbing cold. Several times, the men made a police-like sweep of adjacent rooms, as if they expected trouble. After a little while, Jethro couldn't stand the silence anymore. "Anyone speak English?" Only silence greeted him. "Anyone?" Nothing. "So, are you guys scavengers or something?" After a moment, he added, "Is it important for me to be quiet right now?" Nothing. "This sucks, I get trapped in an alternate reality without any explanation, the first thing I have to do is fight for my life against monsters, then fight for survival in the freaking freezing cold rain, then-"

He got cut off by a painful hit to the back of his head by the butt of one of the men's rifles. "Crid ib." The man demanded.

"Fine, fine." Jethro said, softly. He then noticed how the female leader's suit was made and colored in such a way that it made her look like she had a thong on a well shaped posterior. "At least she has a nice ass."

"Red res ykyeh." Said leader said, and Jethro got hit in the head again. At that point, he swallowed any further dialogue.

After about thirty minutes, one of the lead scouts held up a fist, universal symbol of "hold on". He moved down a corridor hunched over with his knees bent, making as little noise as he could. He then put his ear close to a door. Jethro thought he heard something that sounded like a grunt of exertion, and a little roar from something not human. The man signaled for them to approach. When the leader got to them, he motioned to his eyes, then to a crack in the door. Instead of kneeling down like most people would, she stooped her back to lower her head to the crack, which gave the others a good look at her faux butt crack. Jethro couldn't help but notice none of the others seemed to notice. Where they that professional or something?

The girl then knelt down while moving her head away from the door, and seemed to be thinking of something when he heard a "hiyah!" from the other side of the door. That sounded very familiar! Ignoring the sudden cocking of rifles and hand cannons as he suddenly moved toward the door, he peeked through the door, and saw the blond man from before fighting a monster on sword-like legs.

"Hey!" He called out.

The sudden voice nearly caused him to not dodge an attack. "Huh?"

"Blondie!"

"_Blondie_?" The man asked.

"Never mind, it's me, the guy with Auron."

"Shortie? Is he with you, I could really use him right now! Even you would do!"

_Shortie? _Jethro wondered for a moment, then ignored both the nickname and the indirect mention that he was the inferior of the two, and said, "Hold on!" He turned around to face down guns and bayonets inches from his face. "You've got to help him!" He was about to try and gesture the meaning of his words, when the blond girl nodded to one of the men who saw her from the corner of his eye. He quickly lashed the rifle to his back as he pulled out a little box-like device from a sack around his waist. He casually pushed Jethro to the side as he placed the little mechanism against the door. When the teen noticed the others were retreating around a corner, he hastily followed. The man setting the charge returned a few seconds later with his hands over his ears, which everyone else mimicked, and less than three seconds later, the mind-numbingly loud explosion rocked the hallway. The group then got their rifles ready and moved toward the door, the girl in the lead. Jethro followed, and saw the group standing there, with both Blondie and the monster both still at the unexpected arrival. The girl nodded to a man, who handed Jethro his sword while she walked toward Blondie and the monster. The man indicated he should follow her, and he did.

"Hey!" Blondie said. "Thanks for showing up!" He said with genuine gratitude.

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see a familiar face, even if I don't know you." Jethro said.

The monster leapt at the girl, who lithely stepped forward and ducked with her arm up, looping it around the monster's elbow joint. She then kicked the opposing bladed leg out with her thick boot and pulled the monster to the ground with its balance out. Blondie jumped forward and hacked off its remained front leg, and Jethro followed up a second later by plunging his sword into the monster's torso. When he pulled it out, the saw blade caused additional damage that caused the monster to shriek.

The girl, showing remarkable dexterity and flexibility, quickly got out from under the monster, pulled a grenade out, and lobbed a grenade into the space she occupied a moment ago. Blondie and Jethro noticed, and jumped away quickly as the grenade went off, blowing the monster to bits. What little bits of entrails remained soon dissolved into fireflies.

Blondie, winded from his extended fight with the monster, doubled over. "Whew. That was close." He suddenly shut up as one of the scavengers grabbed him by the hair and put a knife to his throat.

"Whoa, hold on!" Jethro said, but felt his hair grabbed to hold him in place as a rifle muzzle dug into his back.

"Famm? Drao yna dra cysa eh taydr, aedran fyo." One of the men asked their petite leader.

"Hey, what's going on?" Blondie asked.

"Uh, I might've forgotten to mention these guys aren't really friendly."

"Hu dymgehk!" The one holding Jethro's hair ordered.

"E vunpet ed. Fa dyga dras fedr ic." The leader said.

Suddenly, the man behind Jethro let go of him, and he felt something really hard hit him in the back of the head. As his world started spinning, he saw Blondie go down as well.

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A foot prodding his gut brought him back to awareness enough to notice that he felt really warm. He opened his eyes and noticed dark clouds above, as well as a few of the strangely dressed men. He looked down, and noticed that he was in some kind of battery powered thermal blanket. He felt his shirt and found that it was dry. For a moment, he was glad he ran across these guys, prisoner or no.

"Kad ib. Ced drana." The man ordered, pointing a hand cannon at him, then pointing in a direction where Blondie was sitting. He tried getting up and moving with the blanket, but the man pulled it away from him as he moved. Jethro let it go without a fight.

Shortly after he sat down next to his fellow captive, the large metal door to the ship opened, and several figures stepped out. One was the girl from before, the other was a tall guy in a Mohawk with goggles on and tattoos covering his exposed torso. "Caynlr dras." He ordered.

A few of the people came over, lifted Jethro and his friend onto their feet and began patting them down. After that was done, he showed a pair of goggles to Blondie, and did a charade of him jumping over the side and swimming. Then he looked to Jethro, pointed toward the door, indicated swimming again and seemed to grab something in mid-air and acted like he was struggling to turn it.

"Sorry, I didn't bring my English-to-grunt-grunt dictionary." Jethro said before turning to Blondie and saying, "I think he wants you to abandon ship."

"Not happening." He stated defiantly.

"Ehcumahla!" One of the men yelled, pointing his weapon at them.

"Fyed!" The girl from before ordered, apparently trying to calm the man down. "He said you can stay if you make yourselves useful."

Both Jethro and Blondie jerked their heads at her. "You…you understand me?" He was promptly struck in the back. "All right, I'll work!"

The girl looked at Jethro then. "I can agree to that."

Then, the tall tattooed Mohawk came up to him and held up his hand as if for arm wrestling. Jethro, confused, mimicked the gesture, and the man started arm wrestling him. Jethro fought back as hard as he could, and after several seconds, the man let go of his hand. "Kuut ahuikr." He stated.

"Translation?" Jethro asked the girl.

"The primary bilge pump in the ship broke, and the secondary pumps aren't activating due to _shotty jury-rigging_!" She said while looking at the tattooed man, who refused to meet her gaze with his nose up in the air. "And the only working switch is in a flooded compartment. It's not deep in, but it's a tight squeeze." She said all of that with a somewhat bubbly attitude.

"So I'm the only one small enough to get to it, right?" She nodded. "You're smaller than me, y'know?"

"Uh," She scratched her chin, apparently out of nervousness. "The lever is a little rusted. That's why Brother here needed to test your strength." Again, in a cute, almost childish tone.

"Ahh." Jethro said, coyly. "Little girl doesn't have the muscles for the job, right?" He suddenly found himself hit in the head again. He was really getting sick of that, but he kept his anger in check. "Okay, I'll do it. Just show me the way." The tall man, the one the girl referred to as 'Brother' touched his shoulder and indicated that he should follow him.

As they were walking away, he heard the girl talking to the blonde man. "Now for you, we found some ancient ruins right beneath us. It's not active now," He didn't hear the rest after the door closed on them. 'Brother' led him down a few corridors and stair cases until they reached a level that was flooded up to waist level. The man quickly dove into the water and started swimming so they could move faster, and Jethro followed. The water was still cold, but at least he was warmer than earlier due to their heated blanket. He made note to thank them for helping him there.

After a few corridors, Brother stopped and pulled a panel off the wall below water level. He then surfaced and turned to Jethro. "Cfedlr eh drana. Ed nat."

"I don't suppose you know English, do you?"

The man sighed, and said, "Nat, nat!"

"What does 'Nat' mean?" Jethro asked, enunciating each word clearly.

Brother held his chin as he thought for a few seconds. After several seconds, he apparently remembered the word. "Red!" He pointed to the small compartment. "Red." He repeated.

"Okay, that I can work on." Jethro said, and moved closer to the entrance, took the goggles Brother offered, took a deep breath, and dove in. The open panel led to a small tunnel only a foot and a half wide against the ship's hull. He pulled himself in, and was thankful the tunnel had its own illumination. It was only ten feet long, and he quickly saw a large red lever. Grabbing onto the handholds in the walls, he pulled himself down the tunnel. The girl was right when she said it was a tight squeeze, his chest with a full breath rubbed against both walls!

He reached the lever, tried to get a good hold of the walls with his feet, and pulled. It didn't budge. He tried propping his knees and feet against the walls, and he still wasn't able to get it to move. He tried for a few more seconds before he decided he needed air. He moved back as quickly as he could, swung his legs out of the portal and took several deep breaths when he got to the surface.

"Hajan dnyehat du rumt ouin pnaydr?" Brother asked.

"I'm getting to it, just wait." Jethro insisted, assuming the man was being impatient. He went back under, and this time, went in feet first. He moved down the tunnel with his feet leading, frequently hitting some obstruction he couldn't see, until they touched the wall past the switch. He then used the wall to push into the switch, and after several seconds of pushing, it finally gave way. A few seconds later, he heard and felt through the water the rumblings of a large machine operating. He then got out of the tunnel, and Brother gave him an approving nod.

"Kuut zup, hafpea." He turned and started back the way they came.

"I'm not a half-pea." Jethro muttered.

By the time they reached the stairs, he could tell the water level was already lowering. Brother led him back out onto the deck of the ship, which was completely vacant. "Hey, where's my friend and the girl?"

Brother just looked at him confused. Jethro sighed and motioned for two people of Blondie and the girl's heights. After a few seconds, the man got it. "Drao yna ihtan fydan, fungehk yd dra niehc." He then motioned overboard with swimming motions.

"Okay." Jethro said, wondering if they were in a submersible or something. Brother went back inside, throwing out a towel in the process, and left him on the deck. "Great." He said before grabbing the towel and drying himself off as best he could. He then went over to the crane on the ship, sat down with his back against it, and covered himself with the towel like a blanket. He wasn't as cold as before, but he was far from comfortable. At least it was warmer out than when he woke up.

After ten minutes or so, Blondie and Blonde Girl climbed out of the water and onto the ship, along with several of the other scavengers. _So they were swimming out there?_ Jethro thought, wondering what they were doing out there. As Blondie shook himself off like a dog, the rest went into the ship, talking amongst themselves in their language. When Blondie tried to follow them in, one of them shoved him back out.

"Hey. I helped out, didn't I?" He demanded. After the door closed, he despondently came and sat next to Jethro, who offered him the towel. With a brief 'thanks', he started wiping off his hair. It looked like his clothes were water resistant, as they didn't seem wet at all. "I guess you got kicked out here as well, huh?"

"Yeah. They probably don't want us interfering with whatever they were up to." Jethro added. Deciding they might as well pass the time, he asked, "So what did they have you do out there?"

Blondie then went into a ten minute explanation of their adventures under the water, finding the ruins, finding out how to turn the power on, fighting the 'fiend' that was down there, and the wreckage of a large airship, often using large gestures while walking around the deck. From what he heard, it seemed these monsters were called 'fiends', but the story also brought up a question, "How long were you down there?"

"Oh, about ten minutes. Why?"

Jethro deadpanned at the answer for a few seconds before asking, "How can you hold your breath that long? And still move and exercise and everything?"

"Well, I'm a blitzball player, y'know?"

"Okay, I might have forgotten to mention this, but you know how you're from that city-"

"You mean Zanarkand?" Blondie interjected.

"Yeah, well you're from Zanarkand, and you're here now, right? Well, I was never from Zanarkand, I arrived there when Sin took me from my home."

Blondie's eyes widened a bit. "Sorry to hear about that. I guess getting back to Zanarkand won't help you much, eh Shortie?"

_Has he been thinking of me by that moniker this whole time, just like I've been thinking of him as "blondie"?_ "The name's Jethro."

"Huh, we haven't exchanged names yet, have we? I'm Tidus, star player of the Zanarkand Abes!" He said with some pride.

"Yeah, about that. I don't know what blitzball is, or how it enables you to be underwater for so long."

"Oh." Tidus said, understanding. He scratched the back of his head nervously. "Uh, I don't understand the science behind it much, but you know how our muscles need oxygen and all that? Well, we train to lower our, uh, metabolism I think it is, and so that at will our muscles use up very little oxygen to work, or something like that. That's how we can play at our best for fifteen minute rounds. And it's why we need ten minute breaks in between, because if we keep like that, we'll cause a lot of damage to our bodies, and we need the break to, uh, fill that oxygen gap or something like that."

Jethro scratched his head. "Okay, I think I've got the general idea of it." _That's freaking inhuman!_

Tidus came over and sat down next to him. "So, did they say anything about food?"

"How would I be able to tell? I don't have an English-to-Tucheck-Tucheck Dictionary." Jethro said, trying to imitate their language as best as he could.

"Ugh." Tidus moaned. "This is gonna be a long night."

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It _was_ becoming a long night. After an hour, the two had nothing to talk about, and even Jethro's stomach was starting to growl. He was actually starting to fall asleep when they noticed the door to the ship open up and the blonde girl come out with two food trays in her hands. Tidus took his and started eating with gusto. Jethro, knowing the awful cramps that can happen when over eating on an empty stomach, did his best to control how quickly he ate. There were no utensils, so they both ate with their hands, eating up the red ocean-based-creature meat and steamed vegetables. Within seconds, Jethro could hear Tidus giving off panicked groans as the girl gave him a flask.

"It's 'cause you eat too fast." She explained as she gave up the flask.

"It's not exactly been an easy couple of days for us." Jethro put out. "You can't blame us for indulging."

She looked at him, confused, and shrugged it off. At that, Tidus got up, stretched and walked around, having already finished his food off. Jethro continued with his food at the most methodical pace he could manage while Tidus and the girl, Rikku, introduced themselves. Jethro asked who they all were, and Rikku said they were Al Bhed. When the two men claimed they had never heard of them, she asked where they were from.

"Earth. Specifically Lacey, Washington, United States of America, North American Continent. I don't suppose those names mean anything to you, do they?" Jethro asked.

The girl shook her head, and when Tidus mentioned he was the star player of the Zanarkand Abes, she looked somewhat nervous and confused. "Uh, okay. So, how did you guys end up at Baaj Temple?"

So Tidus began talking about Zanarkand, the blitzball game, and the encounter with Sin. By the time he was done, Jethro had finished his meal and walked up to join them at the rail. "And you?" Rikku asked him.

"Well, I was at the beach, avoiding my parents as they were fighting, Sin appeared out of the inlet, and sucked me up. Not much to tell beyond that."

"Oh." She said, somewhat disappointed. She took a quick glance at Tidus before looking away, pretending she hadn't. Tidus picked it up.

"Did I…say something funny?" He asked.

"You were near Sin?" She asked. They both nodded. "Don't worry, you'll both be better in no time. They say your head gets funny when Sin is near. Maybe you both had some kind of dream."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jethro asked, not meaning for the rude tone to creep into his voice.

"You mean we're sick?" Tidus asked.

"Because of Sin's toxin, yeah. There _is _no Zanarkand anymore. Sin destroyed it a thousand years ago." Jethro's head snapped toward Tidus and saw the shocked look on his face. "So…no one plays blitzball there." Tidus was quick to deny the incident was a figment of his imagination, and Rikku mentioned going to Luca to see if someone recognized him. She also mentioned that Zanarkand was considered a holy place, that he shouldn't mention it to others so freely.

The entire time, Jethro was silent. He was there with Tidus, he saw the sprawling city and Sin destroying it. So there had to be some truth to it all. And if Sin had transported them a thousand years from Tidus's time, what had it done with him? He and some friends had discussed how civilizations never endure forever, and that even the US would eventually cease to exist in some way or another, so it didn't surprise him that, if he were a few thousand years in the future, it wouldn't be around, but to have no one even hear of it? That didn't seem possible. Even the earliest signs of human occupation have been unearthed. He remembered learning about how the area around the long-standing city of Forli was inhabited as far back as eight hundred thousand years ago. If modern day scientists could find evidence of civilizations from that far back, surely future scientists could tell there was a global system of countries and trade from any point in Earth's future. Unless they weren't on Earth anymore.

"So what does Sin do?" Jethro suddenly asked. Tidus and Rikku stopped talking then, the girl looking a little confused. "You make it sound like you're familiar with Sin. Tidus and I never heard of him before, so what is he?"

Rikku gave them another pathetic look before explaining, "No one knows for sure where Sin comes from. Yevon claims he's our punishment for war and such, but that wouldn't make sense 'cause he kills anyone, sinner or saint. He goes around, destroying whatever settlements he can find, killing everyone along the way, and usually leaving the survivors sick with his toxin."

"And he's been doing that for a thousand years!" Jethro asked, incredulously.

"Not constantly, but most of the time, yeah. There're stories of massive cities in the past, reaching farther than the eye could see, taller than anyone could climb. Baaj Temple, the place you were just at, was attacked by Sin less than ten years ago. Most of the island was above water at the time. Nearly every settlement in Spira has been destroyed by Sin at least once. We always rebuild when we can, but most people get hit by Sin sooner or later."

Jethro, his emotions awhirl, turned his gaze back out to sea. "Man, I…I can't imagine what it's like to live in a world where whole cities, families, cultures disappearing overnight is common."

"So, what _is_ your home like?" Tidus asked. "Anything like Zanarkand?"

"Yeah, tell us about it." Rikku chimed, chipper again.

Jethro shook his head to clear it, trying to find a way to explain his world. "Well, no one lives out on the ocean. Everyone lives on the land, whether it's grassy plain, desert, mountains, tundra, forest or anything in between. There's not a place on the planet man hasn't explored and mapped. I live in a country that's considered one of the founders of governments ruled by officials elected by the people. For a long time, we were the leaders of individual liberties, and in some areas we still are. We've had a few wars these last few decades, but most people are able to sleep without being afraid they'll be killed at night. People usually live in one spot for long periods of time, raise families, work jobs, and life would only be as unstable as we let it become. There are so many cultures, ethnicities, religions, and though there is some resentment among some of the groups, attacks between them are rare. Our culture promotes tolerance, acceptance and coexistence. People can say whatever they want to one another, but the law protects even the smallest minority from subjugation." He was about to continue on when he saw Rikku was holding onto the rail with white knuckles.

"If…" she said after a few moments of silence, seemingly afraid of her own words, which seemed uncharacteristic of her, "if…this world of yours really is real…could you take me there?"

Jethro realized, feeling somewhat stupefied, that Rikku, and probably the rest of the Al Bhed as well, were a subjugated people. It fit in many ways; Rikku asking them if they were Al Bhed haters, their apparent scavenger lifestyle; the segregation between him, Tidus, and the rest of the ship wasn't meant as an insult or sign of mistrust, it was realistic caution they must take. He realized, then, that she must have had a much harder time in this world than most because of who her people are. In a world where Sin caused untold destruction, fear, and suffering, her people were denied even the basic kindnesses of trust and friendship.

"I'll take you there. I promise." He said, meaning every word of it. Rikku looked at him, and smiled. It was different from her earlier smiles, which could light a room with energy with their bubbliness, but more solemn. Those earlier smiles must have just been how she deals with this harsh reality, by bringing out energy and fun whenever, however she can. He thought her eyes were a little watery, and he was glad he could do her this little kindness, even if he had no idea how he would pull it off.

Suddenly, the ship rocked as a cascade of water shot off the ship's port. Jethro and Rikku turned immediately to see what it was, and saw it race toward the ship. The door opened almost immediately, and two Al Bhed came out with their guns. The looks on their faces showed they knew the guns wouldn't help.

"Sin!" One yelled.

"Sin ic lusa!"

An instant later, the spout of water slammed into the salvage ship, letting loose a huge wave of water that washed over the deck. At the last moment, without thinking Jethro grabbed Rikku and shielded her from the water. The force of the water was too great for them to handle, and they were both swept off their feet and across the deck. In no time at all, Jethro felt the rough stainless steel of the deck give way to open air as he fell over the side. Suddenly, he felt a hand grab his hand, keeping him from the churning waters below. With the water out of his eyes, he saw Rikku holding onto the vertical beam holding up the hand rail with one hand and holding his hand with the other. The strain of both their weights was apparent on her face.

Jethro risked a glance below, and saw Tidus fighting to get to the surface of the water, only to be pulled under even harder, until he was gone from sight. _Is this going to continue on?_ He wondered. _That's twice now that Sin's appeared. He took me to Zanarkand first, and then here. Where will he take me now?_ He looked up at Rikku. _Is he going to continue taking me far away from anything I know? How long is this going to continue on for?_

"Ramb!" She yelled under the strain. "E lyh'd rumt uh! Cusaputo!"

_She's going to get sucked down with us._ He realized. If she fell with them, she might end up in the distant future again, or some other world entirely. Sin would take her away from everything and everyone she knows and loves. Jethro would drag her down with them. He couldn't do that to her.

Wordlessly, he let go of her hand, and fell into the water.

End of Chapter Two.


End file.
